Tuesday, November 12, 2013

One year has passed since 31 Bahrainis had their citizenships revoked as
retribution for exercising their right to freedom of expression. The
Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) expresses its concern over the
authorities' continued attacks on opposition activists, former members
of parliament, clerics, and others.

On 7 November 2012, the owner of the Twitter account @7areghum,
a cyber vigilante reportedly aligned to the authorities in Bahrain,
posted on his Twitter timeline the names of 31 citizens whom he stated
will have their citizenship revoked. Approximately 20 minutes later, the
government issued a statement with the same list confirming the revocation of their citizenship.

As a result of the authorities' baseless decision, these individuals
have been stripped of benefits that citizens would normally enjoy in
Bahrain, such as inexpensive housing and free health care. The Ministry
of Interior has changed the official information related to their
nationalities from "Bahraini" to "No Nationality" or "Unknown."

Hussain Al-Mosawi and Mariam Sayed Ebrahim, a couple who had their
citizenship stripped away from, had their passports and identification
cards held by the authorities therefore restricting their right to freedom of movement. On 14 November 2012, the Minister of Justice banned Taimoor Karimi, a lawyer whose nationality was revoked, from attending court on behalf of his clients.

According to reports, Shaikh Hussain Najati, a cleric who also
belongs to the group of 31 Bahrainis, has been continously pressured by
the authorities to leave the country. This is not the first time Shaikh
Najati's citizenship has been revoked. In September 2010, the
authorities stripped him and his family from their citizenships, stating
that "Najati, his wife and his children received their passports in
violation of the provision of both national and passport laws." In
November 2010, a royal decree was issued re-granting him and his family
Bahraini citizenship, only for it to be revoked again a year later.

Ebrahim Karimi is the only individual amongst those whose
citizenships were revoked to appeal against the decision in court; the
process has been difficult. His case is still sitting in the High
Administrative Court after being postponed several times. The last
postponement was on 30 October 2013, when the defense protested against
not being provided a copy of a document that the State's representative
submitted to court in the last hearing session.

The court postponed the previous session to study this document,
however, it did not provide the defense with a copy. Lawyer Mohammed
Al-Tajer stated that "in today's hearing [that was held on 30 October],
we objected for not being given a copy of the document that was
presented to court." On 11 December 2012, Karimi was prevented from
finalizing the process to appoint a lawyer and was told that the system
rejected his application.

BCHR believes that revoking the citizenship of these 31 individuals
is an act of retribution for exercising their rights to freedom of
expression. This case also demonstrates the government's targeting of a
certain sect as all the concerned individuals are Shiite. By revoking
the citizenship of these individuals, the Bahraini authorities are
violating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states, "no
one shall be arbitrarily deprived of nationality."

Moreover, it should be noted that the government of Bahrain has used
the revocation of citizenship as a tool to punish dissenters in popular
uprisings for decades. In the 1980's the Emir revoked the citizenship
of a large number of individuals and deported many of them. Similarly,
during the uprising in the 1990's, many opposition activists were also
stripped of their citizenships.

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights calls on the United States, the
United Kingdom, the European Union and all allies of Bahrain to pressure
the authorities to:

immediately reinstate full citizenship for each of the 31 individuals above;

end the practice of revoking citizenship as retribution for exercising the right to freedom of expression;

allow the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression to visit Bahrain.

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